Bangladesh's cyclone aftermath

BARGUNA, Bangladesh (AP) -- The death toll from Thursday's cyclone in Bangladesh is now more than 3,100, and officials say that number could reach 10,000 once rescuers get to outlying islands. Rescuers are struggling to reach thousands of survivors, and relief items have been slow to reach many. Survivors grieved and buried their loved ones Monday as they waited for aid to arrive.

The death toll from the Thursday cyclone reached 3,113 after reports finally reached Dhaka from storm-ravaged areas which had been largely cut off because of washed-out roads and downed telephone lines, said Lt. Col. Main Ullah Chowdhury, a spokesman of the army coordinating the relief and rescue work.

Relief Web has this:

As of 18th November, the disaster management control room reported death of 2,300 people in 23 districts due to the Cyclone Sidr. It is also reported from different sources that nearly 4,000 people are seriously injured. Thousands are still missing and it is unofficially forecasted that the dead and missing will be over 5,000. It is estimated that the cyclone has affected 887,000 families of 103 upazilas, killed 242,000 livestock and destroyed crops on 23,000 acres of land and flattened nearly three million houses.

And:

DHAKA (AFP) — Experts said Sunday they feared for the wildlife and ecology of the world's biggest mangrove forest after a deadly cyclone tore through the Sunderbans -- home to the endangered Royal Bengal tiger.

Zunayed Kabir Chowdhury, a Dhaka-based mangrove expert, said he feared thousands of deer as well as many tigers and wild boar had been swept away by the massive tidal wave triggered by cyclone Sidr last Thursday.

"The eye of the cyclone hit the part of the Sunderbans which is known to be the most important habitat of the tigers and other wildlife," he said.

The nests of many birds would also have been destroyed, he added.

"Wildlife is vulnerable to this sort of natural disaster and much would have been washed away by the strong surge," said Shanti Ranjan Das of the government's livestock department.

"The cyclone has inflicted an ecological disaster," he added.

This is just the beginning of constant news about inundations along the coastlines, about huge losses of life. Too many people trying to find areas to live in are forced into danger zones.

Nice to think there are still people who deny global warming and insist that birth control is evil....

Update:

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) said in its report that evidence of climate change is "unequivocal."

It said the trend could lead to "abrupt" changes to the planet, cause human suffering and threaten some species with extinction.

Climate change with or without the politics

Is still going to happen.

According to the report, human-made emissions of greenhouse gases can be blamed for fewer cold days, hotter nights, killer heat waves, floods and heavy rains, devastating droughts, and an increase in hurricane and tropical storm strength. The harmful effects of climate change during the 21st century "would very likely be larger than those observed during the 20th century," the report said.
[snip]
The report predicts temperature rises of 1.1 to 6.4 degrees Celsius (2 to 11.5 degrees Fahrenheit) by the year 2100, a wider range than in the 2001 report. The panel's best estimate was for temperature increases of 1.8 to 4 degrees Celsius (3.2 to 7.1 degrees Fahrenheit).

Regarding rising sea levels, the report projects jumps of 7 to 23 inches (18 to 58 centimeters) by the end of the century. An additional 3.9 to 7.8 inches (10 to 20 centimeters) are possible if polar ice sheets continue to melt.

The report warns that no matter how much civilization slows or reduces its greenhouse gas emissions, global warming and sea level rise will continue for centuries.

More articles from Spiegel Online on global warming.

Update 2/4: Steve Bates has the link to the pdf report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). (Bottom of the post.)